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useful, as affording the youth an opportunity of imbibing moral, religious, and domesticated habits, from the example of his master and mistress. Mr. Hardy instantly rejected this argument as perfectly worthless, inasmuch as it was the common practice of the apprentice to learn games of romps in the kitchen with the servants, rather than morality and domestic habits in the parlour. (Laughter.) All on this side of the question semed to agree, that nothing else could be done with a youth of 15 years, than bind him apprentice for 5 years, to keep him out of harm's way! Mr. Hardy, indeed, while he half condemned and half approved the principle of apprenticeship, strongly urged the rising generation, when they became masters in their turn, to endeavour to inculcate habits of acquiring general knowledge, but especially mathematics, in the young men while under their charge. This gave origin to a rather caustic remark from Dr. Rees-namely, that he had never known a physician, celebrated for his knowledge of Greek, Latin, and mathematics, who was worth a farthing at the bed-side of sickness. The sticklers for Oxford and Cambridge, if any were present, did not choose to dispute this point. Dr. Rees excited a laugh when he alluded to the writings of the mathematical physiologists and physicians, some of whom proved to a demonstration, that the force of the heart was only equal to a few ounces, while others, proved, by the same "exact science,' that the force of the central organ of the circulation was equal to many thousand pounds!

There were some members who proposed a modification of the apprenticeship, which, they averred, had been already acted on with much advantage. This was, the permission to attend lectures the two first years of the apprenticeship, which rendered the pupil a very useful assistant to his master during the other three years. The general voice of this enlightened assembly was clearly against the present system-some wishing it abolished in toto, while almost all recommended an abridgment of the period of five years.

For our own parts, we have always been of opinion, and this opinion is grounded on actual experience, (having ourselves gone through the drudgery of an

apprenticeship) that the actual state of things is bad in this respect. There are some masters, and there are some situations, in which the whole period of five or six years may be advantageouslypassed under indenture,but these are little more than exceptions to general rules. We conscientiously believe, that two-thirds, at least, of the period of servitude (for it is nothing else) are lost-or worse than lost. When the business of the apothecary was a mere matter of pounding, compounding, boiling, extracting, and distilling, as it now is with the chemist, there was some reason for indenting a youth for seven years to become au fait in all these various and complicated manipulations. But now, when the general practitioner is, to all intents and purposes, the general physician and surgeon-when his pursuits are intellectual, and not mechanical, it is absurd to cling to the old system of apprenticeship. True it is, that, under the existing order of things, there will be much inconvenience in dispensing with the services of the apprentice-for who is to make up the medicines, when the master comes home, tired with his daily rounds? We hope the day is not far distant, when the general practitioner will shake off entirely all connexion with the dispensing of medicines, and with the mere trading part of the profession. We hope and trust that we will yet live to see the day, when every general practitioner's medical education will be as complete-his studies as extended, and his examinations as rigid, as those of the physician and surgeon so called. This approximation is rapidly approaching— and as it draws to a consummation, his medical attendance on the sick must and will be rewarded by fees, and not by the price of draughts and pills prescribed. He will then require no apprentice.

In the course of the discussion this evening, a very ludicrous collision took place among the three grades of the profession, which, at one time, threatened a WAR-of words at least! The brother of Dr. Hodgkin, (who, we believe, is of the legal profession) evidently with the best intentions, read some extracts from certain judicial records, shewing that the original apothecary united the very lucrative business of grocer, with the "art and mystery" of his own peculiar calling. This was like a spark of fire applied to

a barrel of gun-powder! The inquiry was immediately instituted as to the origin of the surgeon; when it was clearly proved that he did not, in days of yore, disdain to flourish the razor, and thereby drop the penny into the till, for smoothing the chin of the " unwashed artizan," on a Saturday evening! (Roars of laughter.) The physician's turn came next. The younger Mr. Hardy showed that "their high mightinesses" the cotemporary physicians of the barber-surgeons and grocer-apothecaries, united with the "art and mystery" of their avocations the sublime science of ASTROLOGY-and that many of them derived a larger revenue from the interpretation of what was passing among the heavenly bodies, than what was going on in the bodies of their patients. (Continued laughter.) There was now a kind of instinctive impulse to put an end to this investigation. The physicians, the pure surgeons, the general practitioners, and the " Worshipfuls," all jumped up, as it were, per sallum, to apologize to, and compliment each other on the millenium which now obtained in medical science! All retrospection of the past, and investigations into the origins of the different ranks in the profession were dropped by mutual consent-as subjects by no means calculated to promote the most pleasant feelings, or conduce to the harmony of the society.

There was an observation which fell from Mr. Johnson, one of the examiners in the worshipful company, which excited an extraordinary sensation of disapprobation, even in the ranks of those who supported the said company. He broached the opinion, that too good an education, and too much scientific knowledge, only rendered the surgeon-apothecary discontented with his lot-and, consequently, proved a disadvantage in his professional progress through life. This was so unsavoury a dose to the "march of intellect," that a spectator would have augured, from the countenances of the members, that each individual had that instant swallowed a large draught of salts, senna, and assafœtida! The poor examiner was obliged to eat up-his own physic-and we think a severer punishment could hardly have been inflicted.

Thus ended the first night's discussion, the remainder of the subject being adjourned till the succeeding week.

Although, in these debates, nothing was, or could be decided on, since the evil of apprenticeship was sustained by a parliamentary enactment, yet the debates of the evening tended to show a powerful preponderance of sentiment and argument against the present system-and such developments of public feelings and opinion must pave the way to a repeal of the obnoxious laws, and a final correction of the evil. It is with a view of contributing our mite to this " consummation so devoutly to be wished," that we have presented a sketch of the Society's deliberations, and appended our own conclu

sions.

The adjourned meeting, on Saturday, the 13th October, was equally stormy, but not so interesting. The plan of study recommended by Dr. Hodgkin was, however, generally approved of, but, as it is already before the public through other channels, we shall not touch on it here.

Dr. Hodgkin should publish his paper, in order that it might circulate freely among the students.

III.

MEDICAL EDUCATION IN EDINBURGH.

By an able paper in a late number of our northern cotemporary, bearing the initials of the junior Duncan, we have now a view of the unfortunate litigation which subsists between the patrons and professors of the northern university. It appears, in short,that the intellectual citizens-that is, the worshipful companies of butchers, brewers, tanners, and weavers, have determined to show the world that they can regulate the ACADEMIC CURRICULUM with as much exactness as they can cleave a chine of meat, stir up a vat of malt, curry the pelt of a calf, or ply the shuttle on a tartan petticoat! The town council consists of seventeen members of the merchants' company, and sixteen from "the incorporated trades." "By profession," says Dr. D. "none of these gentlemen are at all connected with letters, or necessarily in habits of communication with the learned-except the surgeon." Yet these are the men who are to legislate on all purely academic matters! It is pretty broadly hinted, that an individual of one of the incorpo

rated trades-namely, the President of the College of Surgeons, is the prompter on this occasion. If he and his party carry the point against the SENATUS ACADEMICUS. they may give orders at once to one of the incorporated trades-the painter, to write, in large black letters, over the gate of the university-EDINA FUIT. The halls of that famous seat of medical lore will soon be as deserted as the ruins of Palmyra. This is the opinion of Dr. D. himself. "Were the honourable patrons to succeed in establishing their claims, the downfal of the university may be confidently predicted." What parent would send his child to be educated at an University whose fluctuating government (the members remain in office but one or two years) would be perpetually altering the regulations, so that no student could depend on the stability of the curriculum? who would imagine that the patrons of the University tried all in their power to make the new regulations or statutes lately enacted retrospective on those who had previously been pursuing their studies! Every one knows that nothing is more unjust or impolitic than the retrospective operation of a new law. If we may judge by this sample of liberality, the modern Athens is in as tottering a condition as the ancient! Her walls, indeed, are not beleaguered by the Turk and the Mameluke -but the foundations of her fame are sapped by the blind zeal, the turbulent passions, and the conflicting interests of her own citizens !

For the Senatus Academicus to maintain a tedious and expensive law-suit with the patrons, who had the public purse to draw upon, would have been madness; and, therefore, they wisely, as the lesser of two evils, appealed to the Crown, which has appointed a Commission to settle the disputed points. We sincerely hope, and confidently believe, that the Royal Commissioners will leave in the hands of the Senatus Academicus the management of all matters purely academical.

Dr. Duncan has made some excellent observations on the preparatory knowledge to be possessed by young men before they commence the study of medicine. By some medical reformers, a most extravagant quantum of extra-professional learning and science is insisted on. They say it is absolutely necessary that phy

sician, surgeon, and general practitioner, should be intimate with the Greek, Arabic Latin-English, French, German, and Italian languages-with moral and natural philosophy, logic, rhetoric, metaphysics, geometry, algebra, mechanics, hydrostatics, acoustics, optics, and, in short, with almost the whole range of human knowledge! Bless the literary and scientific noddles of these believers in the perfectibility of human nature ! They seem to have no idea that life is bounded to 60 or 70 years, and that the study of only one or two branches of the healing art, such as pathology and therapeutics, would require a life of thrice the ordinary duration, to be even tolerably complete! Are we then to squander away a great proportion of our time in acquiring a knowledge of certain languages and sciences bearing so remotely on the practice of medicine, that it would be extremely difficult to prove them as auxiliaries at all; with the risk, nay, with the certainty of taking away time from the necessary study of the most vital and essential parts of our science? We must not legislate for those alone who are endowed with superlative talent. Every man is not a Crichton. We must adapt the scale of acquisition to the general run of mankind, leaving genius to outstrip its cotemporaries, and shine

-velut inter ignes,

Luna minores.

Upon these points, Dr. Duncan has made some excellent and pertinent remarks. He properly observes that the knowledge of languages, in itself, derives its chief utility from its facilitating the acquisition of useful knowledge. Let us take Greek, for example. This is the language of the fathers of physic, and that from which the terms of the medical art have been almost all borrowed. But, will any candid person aver that the useful portion of Hippocrates may not be as well learnt from the right as from the left hand columns of Vander Linden's edition-from the Latin as well as from the Greek? But then the terms are derived from the Greek. Be it so. If names are meant to signify things, we really see little advantage in knowing from whence that name is derived. Indeed, in innumerable instances, the derivation serves only to give us an erroneous notion of the nature of the thing so named "It

is," says Dugald Stewart," in many cases, a fortunate circumstance when the words we employ have lost their pedigree;" for then, "the obscurity of their history prevents them from misleading the imagination, by recalling it to the objects or phenomena to which they owed their origin." Of what assistance will be the derivation of febris or typhus, in comprehending the nature of the malady! To be hot or to be soporose is not peculiar to fever or typhus. The derivation of inflammation would convey the idea of lighting a candle rather than the disease which it designates. What idea of erysipelas does the derivation of that word convey? In short, as Dr. Duncan has truly observed, "all attempts at descriptive terminology have utterly failed, and have impeded, instead of advancing the progress of knowledge." what has the terminology of Dr. J. M. Good done for the knowledge of diseases? Precisely what Dr. Duncan affirms-" it has had no other effect than to impede the dissemination of any addition to our knowledge that may be otherwise contained in his writings." God forbid that we should attempt to throw any slur on classical erudition. On the contrary, we believe that it eminently expands and liberalizes the mind; but to say that a knowledge of the Greek, or indeed of any other derivation of the names of diseases, conduces to a knowledge of the diseases themselves, is as false as it is absurd. If then the time or the capacity of the medical practitioner be inadequate to the acquirement of many languages, we would say, drop the Greek, rather than French, German, or Italian. Latin, for various reasons, is indispensable-but not so Greek. Natural philosophy, and the various branches of literature and science, are highly ornamental, but we question whether they conduce, in any very material degree, and in a direct manner, to the improvement of practical medicine. If it be true, and we believe it is, that the whole of the healing art consists in OBSERVATION, it follows that the study of classical learning, natural philosophy, polite literature, metaphysics, and the various mechanical arts, can only be considered as excellent and ornamental exercises for enlarging and strengthening the mind, thereby rendering it a more apt recipient for the purely medical knowVOL. VIII. No. 15.

ledge that is to follow. But this, like every other good, is not without alloy. The delightful paths of literature and science, form a great contrast with the dry, and often unsatisfactory, study of medicine. And we put it to those who are best able to judge, whether or not the mind inclines to those exercises and recreations which afford most pleasure and amusement, to the comparative neglect of the wearisome and difficult investigations of pathology and therapeutics. Had the late Dr. Good paid as much attention to the recent progress of pathology, as he did to poetry and metaphysics, he would not have been rejected by the College of Physicians. The writer of this article was examined at the College on the same day that Dr. Good was; and in conversation, while pacing the long and sombre hall of old Warwick, he was astonished to find that the translator of Lucretius knew scarcely any thing of what had been done in the investigation of the seats and effects of diseases since the days of Morgagni! Here was an instance where the "pursuits of literature" and science had drawn the mind from, at least, one important branch of medical study. Were we disposed, we could adduce living instances of the same kind; but it is unnecessary. Nor are we unaware that many of the greatest ornaments of our profession were men of literature and science; but the example of John Hunter proves that science and literature are not essential to the most splendid attainments and discoveries in physiology, medicine, and surgery. As Dr. D. has well observed," natural philosophy is the science of dead matter; the physician deals with living bodies, whose distinctive vital properties far overbalance the dead machinery." How far do the laws of mechanics assist the surgeon in reducing a dislocation-the laws of optics, the oculist-or those of acoustics, the aurist? Very little indeed! And these are the three branches of science which come more immediately into play in elucidating physiology.

As for the science of mind, we do firmly believe that the study of physiology and pathology (which are our own direct employments) throws more light on the nature of mind than all the metaphysical disquisitions that have ever been engendered in the brains of philosophers. 32

Upon the whole, we imagine it will be a very difficult and delicate matter to regulate the literary and scientific attainments of those who are destined for the general practice of their profession. That a competent education is desirable, and indeed necessary, no one will deny; but the extent of this preliminary education will be hard to fix No doubt it is advantageous for the Fellows of the London College of Physicians to have a university education; but to expect this in all ranks and classes of medical society, is perfectly Utopian. What remuneration would nine-tenths of general practitioners have for such an expensive education? And would the study of classical literature, philosophy, and science, in academic bowers, qualify or adapt them for the drudgery of their profession among the different classes of society afterwards?

IV

THE REGULATIONS AT APOTHECARIES' HALL.

That every candidate for a certificate to practice as an Apothecary, shall be required to possess a competent knowledge of the Latin language, and to produce testimonials of having served an apprenticeship of not less than five years to an Apothecary; of having attained the full age of twenty-one years, and being of a good moral conduct.

N.B. Articles of apprenticeship, where such are in existence, will be required; but, in case such articles shall have been lost, it is expected that the candidate shall bring forward very strong testimony to prove that he has served such an apprenticeship as the Act of Parliament directs.

He is also required to produce certificates of having attended not less than One course of lectures on materia medica and medical botany;

One course of lectures on chemistry; Two courses of lectures on anatomy and physiology;

Two courses of lectures on the theory and practice of medicine: these last to be attended subsequently to the lectures on materia medica, chemistry, and to one course, at least, of anatomy.

N,B. No testimonial of attendance on lectures on the principles and practice of medicine, delivered in London, or within, seven miles thereof will render a candi

date eligible for examination, unless such lectures were given, and the testimonial is signed by, a fellow, candidate, or licentiate, of the Royal College of Physicians. A certificate of attendance for six months, at least, on the medical practice of some public hospital or infirmary, or for nine months at a dispensary; such attendance to commence subsequently to the termination of the first course of lectures on the principles and practice of medicine.

N. B. Physicians' pupils, who intend to present themselves for examination, must appear personally at the beadle's office, in this Hall, and bring with them the tickets, authorising their attendance on such practice, as the commencement thereof will be dated from the time of such personal appearance.

The regulations relating to the order of succession in which the lectures on the practice of medicine, and the medical practice of an hospital or dispensary, are to be attended, are designed to apply to those students only who shall commence their attendance on lectures on or after the 1st of February, 1828; and all such persons are particularly requested to take notice, that unless they shall have strictly complied with such order of succession, they will not be admitted to an examination.

In addition to the course of study above required, and which is indispensably necessary, the candidates are earnestly recommended to attend one or more courses of lectures on midwifery, and the diseases of women and children, on the latter of which subjects, as an important part of medical practice, they will be examined.

The Court have determined, that the examination of the candidate shall be as follows:

1. In translating grammatically, parts of the Pharmacopoeia Londinensis, and Physicians' Prescriptions.

Should any doubt arise as to the candidate's possessing a competent knowledge of Latin, he will be required to translate a passage, or passages, from some one of the easier Latin authors.

N.B. The Court are anxious to impress upon candidates a conviction of the necessity of a knowledge of the Latin language, because they have had the painful duty imposed on them of rejecting several persons, entirely from their de

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